Saturday, April 1, 2017

Glyphosate Residue Free certification launched for US food products

Move allows consumers to take steps to avoid the “probable human carcinogen”

Glyphosate Residue Free certification for US food products has been launched by The Detox Project, in a move that gives consumers a way of avoiding the “probably carcinogenic” chemical.

The development comes just as the US Dept of Agriculture has quietly dropped plans to start testing food for residues of glyphosate.

Glyphosate
is the most used pesticide in the world and has the highest public
profile of any chemical used in food production. It has been found in a
range of popular American food products and in the urine of 93% of
people tested by the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).

The
revelation from WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer
(IARC) in 2015 that glyphosate is a “probable human carcinogen” has led
to consumers around the world asking for transparency regarding the
levels of glyphosate in their food.

Glyphosate Residue Free certification

“Currently
the toxic chemical testing standards for both non-organic and organic
food are very weak but we aim to change this by testing food products
directly from the shelf – consumers have the right to know what toxic
chemicals are in the food they buy at grocery stores across the US.”

To
be certified Glyphosate Residue Free, food products must not contain
glyphosate or AMPA residues exceeding the limits of laboratory detection
(between 0.1 parts per billion (ppb) and 20 ppb, depending on the
product), a standard that is tougher or the same as the US Environmental
Protection Agency’s Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs).

The
Glyphosate Residue Free certification testing program is based on the
work of an independent FDA-registered laboratory with over 70 years of
analytical experience, Anresco Laboratories. The testing method used is
LC-MS/MS (liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry), which is the
most reliable method available for glyphosate.

Rowlands said,
“We will make sure that the products are tested at least three times a
year and we will also make sure that spot checks are performed
regularly.”

Consumers want transparent toxic chemical certification

The global success of the Non-GMO food market has shown that
consumers are pushing for more and more transparency. Pesticides are
even higher on the list of consumers’ concerns than GMOs.

Rowlands
said, “The Detox Project is already working with a wide range of food
manufacturers and grocery stores in the US to enable consumers to avoid
glyphosate and other toxic chemicals in their food. It is time for a
shift towards full transparency in the food industry and we aim to help
all parties to achieve this.”